Friday, November 25, 2016

Violence has always been a part
of human behaviour. It manifests itself in different forms and degrees. Humans
as hunter gatherers perpetrated violence by uprooting plants and killing
animals to survive. Settlements led to periodic and sustained violence by
clearing forests for agriculture, killing of pests to protect the produce and
harvesting the crop to feed oneself. Over a period of time some forms of
violence became acceptable. Survival is the biggest instinct and humans, like
all other forms of life ensure that they survive as individuals and as a
species. What was not acceptable was violence against a fellow human. It was
branded as crime and attracted punishment, often punishable by another set of
violent actions.

Humans have moved on from being
mere hunter-gatherers and farmers. We have codified laws, which warn us against
committing violence against fellow humans and animals. But violence still
persists. Throughout history we have evidence of violence against fellow
humans. The twentieth century saw some of the most heinous episodes of violence
where millions perished. The concentration camps run by the Nazis across
Europe, the death march of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey, the forced labour camps
run by Stalin
in Communist Russia, Mao’s Cultural
Revolution and the great
leap forward in Communist China, were all despicable acts of violence
against fellow humans. The five episodes of mass violence claimed approximately
86 million people. Of this 77% or 67 million lost their lives in Communist
Russia and China. The Red Brigade was a formidable force when it came to
killing its own people.

The ideology of eliminating one’s
opponent has not died down even after the death of Communism in both Russia and
China. Both countries remain extremely authoritative and suppress rights of
their own citizens. The Communist ideology has replicated its tendencies of
eliminating its opponents where ever it went. India is no exception. The seven
political murders this year in Kerala is a case in point.

The only two states where the
Communists could ever win elections have seen one of the worst kinds of
political killings. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, then minister of Information and
Cultural Affairs, in a response to an assembly question has stated that between
1977 and 1996, around 28,000 political murders took place in West Bengal. That
is almost 3.8 murders a day. The political murders in West Bengal predate
their accession of power in 1977. The Sainbari Killings of 1970 is one such
incident where the Communists are believed to have fed rice drenched in blood
of the victims to their mother. The political opponents of the Left who were
killed belonged to the Congress and later on to the Trinamool Congress. The
cycle has hardly stopped after a second round of resounding defeat of the
Communists.

The state of affairs in Kerala is
not much different. Only the number of murders are less. There are no reliable statistics
available on the actual number of political killings in Kerala. However, an RTI
response revealed that between 1997 and 2008, 56 people were killed in
internecine violence. The numbers would have gone up since then. This year
alone has seen seven political murders in Kerala, most of them from the Malabar
region where the Communists have a strong support base.

It will be wrong to blame the
Communists for the spate of political murder since many of the dead belonged to
the Communist carders. The blame lies equally on the other side too. But then
there is the question of, “why only states ruled/dominated by the Communist
parties see such political killings”? The opponents of Communists, both the
Congress and the BJP are in power in many states. We do not read about mass
killings carried out by either the Congress or the BJP against each other in
those states. It is always the states ruled or dominated by the Communist
parties, from where such barbaric stories come from.

The red brigade in India is running
a riot. Killing opponents instead of defeating them at the ballot. Their
leaders have the courage to write opinion pieces and give television bytes to
portray themselves as victims. As India becomes more educated, more aware and
more informed, there is hope that the killing machines of Communist parties
will be stopped, by Indians.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

So Donald Trump finally won. The
prolonged campaign and bitter verbal duels between Clinton and Trump are behind
us and the fact is sinking in slowly, for many people. But is Trump’s win
really shocking? Yes, because we were made to believe that it is impossible.
Because we were told for months together that Clinton is everything that
America stands for, all the liberal ideas and egalitarian ideology that America
represents. Trump on the other hand is a capitalist, has evaded taxes, is
misogynist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, racist, etc. All this was told to us by
the so called “respected” and “neutral” media. The CNNs and NYTs of the world
rallied behind Clinton. Even our own media outlets were found sharing photo
frames with Clinton. So yes, the people on the street actually believed that
Trump is going to lose. So much so that Indians, many of whom who may not even
have a passport, are angry at his win. They are outraged and shudder in
disbelief.

As the postmortem of Clinton’s
defeat or Trump’s win unfolds in news studios in the next days, one of the
facts that will stand out is the adverse impact of the extreme negative
campaigns that the media together with Clinton ran against Trump. It was all
about how bad trump is. It was never about what Clinton will do to bring back
jobs and growth to America. Even if there were things that Clinton said about
jobs and growth, they were drowned by the reports of what Trump said.

A prolonged negative campaign always
backfires. No matter how undeserving the target is. We saw it in Lok Sabha
elections in 2014 and we saw it this week in America. The lesson: common people
on street are not bothered about how bad someone is. In desperate times the
people worry more about jobs and economic security more than the self-actualization
goals like social equality and immigration. The point was completely lost by
the “liberal” media and the Champagne/Limousine socialists who feed them
content.

The Indian media is increasingly
looking like the out of touch American media. We are constantly fed with
opinions in the name of news and debates. We are made see things from a thick
coloured glass. The glass, which is dipped and let to soak in the “liberal”
coulours by the m

edia. Be it anti-terrorist operations in Kashmir or shooting
down of a suspected terror boat near our maritime borders or demonetizing of
high value currency to tackle the black money problem. We are always fed with
biased views. We are told why the government is wrong. Glorification of
hardened terrorists, candle light vigils for condemned terrorists and shooting
from the shoulders of daily wagers to counter the demonetizing drive is all
passed as news and freedom of speech. Of course with a liberal sprinkling of
cries of “stifling press freedom”.

The media has crossed the line
between news and opinion. What they don’t realise is that in this age of social
media and alternate platforms to access news, their biased opinions are falling
flat. What they also fail to realise is that extreme forms of hate against a
group or individual is always counterproductive. As Devdutt Pattanaik in his
recent post
wrote that hatred leads to reverse devotion. What it also leads to is awakening
of the masses. People start thinking. This is where the game ends for the
media.

Once a seed of thought is planted
it quickly grows into a tree, which bears fruits of realisations. People see
the double standards behind which the elite and Champagne socialists or private
jet socialists (as the case of Clinton is) hide. The Indian media should
realise that they are not catering to a country of snake charmers. We have left
those days behind us. It is now time for them to wake up and redraw the line
between news and opinion. Let people know what the media house stands for and
which way it leans.